Today a learned that one of our members died last year in an accident. Tim Bucher (jedisan) was an active member of our club from March, 2008 to June, 2011 which is when the accident occurred. I'm sure many of you will recognize his screen name, as he participated in many of our threads.

I've been going back and reading a lot of his past comments to threads, his post to Introductions, and looking at some of the pics he posted of his basses, and the fun picture he posted to the early band pics thread. He clearly enjoyed this community and loved his Alembics. He was a part of us, and we were a part of him.

Today has been a tough day at the Club. Hopefully his family can find some measure of comfort and peace. If anyone has contact information, I would like to make a contribution to the charity of the family's choosing. In this manner, we can keep his presence alive.

I started riding motorcycles in earnest last October after a long conversation with myself: It can be very dangerous. You think distracted driving is a problem when you're in a car, just imagine what I see looking over the handlebars. Why folks think they need to text or talk while they're looking at their navigation screen while they're drinking their Starbucks, MP3's blasting, while shoving their SUV down the road at 60mph is beyond me.

I often feel like a fighter pilot, my head is always on a swivel. Later, going down the same roads in my girl's car in the passsenger seat, I'm often amazed at the houses and yards and other things I never saw on the motorcycle, as I was too focused to see anything other than the road ahead of me.

So, I'd like to propose in honor of our departed friend, that we each pay a little more attention at the wheel, go a bit slower to give us and everyone around us a little more time and maneuvering room, and watch out for motorcycles, even the dummies doing wheelies on the freeway.

Amen to that Joey, and in particular we must educate the younger drivers that some club members may have (their children). I have a deal with my son and he makes sure I do not get distracted by cell phones etc. or even eating while driving. I hope that helps to drive the message home to him, and others!

This is so sad. Joey's point really hits the nail on the head. How many times have I, or any of us, taken our eyes off the road for an instant, or reached over to grab something from the passenger compartment and drifted a little. Of course, 99.9% of the time nothing bad happens and we go on our merry ways. But have we really done anything different than the woman did who hit Tim? As an attorney, I have often considered the fairness of treating one drunk driver who blew through an intersection when no one was there so differently from the drunk driver who, by pure circumstance alone, blew through the intersection when someone was in it, causing a tragic accident. Have they really done anything different? The one who goes through the unoccupied intersection has been just as careless as the one who causes the accident. Make no mistake about it, a motor vehicle is a dangerous and deadly weapon. They should be treated with the same care and respect as one would treat a handgun. Many (many!) years ago, I had a brief flirtation with owning a motorcycle. I very soon gave it up when I realized all motorcycles suffer from one inherent problem - there are cars sharing the road with them. As the old saying goes, whether the stone hits the pitcher, or the pitcher hits the stone, it's going to be bad for the pitcher.

On a related note, just recently, a local bar patron, crossing the street, was struck and killed by a high schooler. The investigation uncovered that the driver was on her cellphone at the time of impact.... Accidents like these are preventable, unfortunate, but most importantly something to learn from, no matter which side of the 8 ball you're on. Be careful out there!!!!

being the owner of a HOnda Fireblade I am at my utmost care when I am in the urban/town area, as soon as I am on the country roads I can then enjoy the two wheeled experience. The number of near misses I have had from people who seem to be blind to a red & white leather clad person onboard a red motorcycle with both lights on belies me! Drivers on cellphones..that is really annoys me!